Erath Co. 4-H dairy judging team wins state honors, competes at national show

By MANDY JOHN | Central Texas Edition

The Erath Co. 4-H dairy judging team, included, from left, July Danley, executive director for the TriCounty Agribusiness Assoc., Ashley Albrecht of Dublin, Grant Voss of Stephenville, Jenny Elliott of Selden, Billy Brown of Stephenville, coach Terry Trout of Stephenville, and Duane Overton, Erath County 4-H agent. -Staff photo by John

October 17, 2002 -- The Erath County 4-H Program is giving area youth many opportunities to increase their knowledge of local agriculture and hone their communication and analytical skills. One such program is the livestock judging competition. With dairy being the number one industry in Erath County it's no surprise that area students have excelled in the dairy juding competition.

The Erath County 4-H Dairy Judging Team recently won the state competition at the State 4-H Roundup in College Station. The team consisted of: Ashley Albrecht, daughter of David and Liz Albrecht of Dublin; Grant Voss, son of Curt and Pam Voss of Stephenville; Billy Brown, son of Tim and Sue Brown of Stephenville; and Jenny Elliott, daughter of Stanley and Brenda Haedge of Stephenville, Dick Elliot of Ardmore, OK. The team placed highest overall individual. The team competed against 17 other 4-H teams throughout the state after winning the district contest held at the Fort Worth Stock Show in January.

Terry Trout, of Stephenville, is the dairy judging team coach. Trout became involved with the team as a coach after his daughter Sara, a recent TSU graduate, competed on the 1997 State Winning Dairy Judging Team. Trout, assistant executive director and CFO at Pecan Valley MHMR, said he enjoys working with the 4-H kids and credits his daughters' involvement in showing heifers and dairy judging as an opportunity to spend quality time together as a faimly.

The team attended the national competition at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, WI in early October. Competition at the national level included judging 10 classes: a cow class and a heifer class from each of five breeds. The students only had 12 minutes to observe and place the heifer calss and 20 minutes for the cow class. They then had to give five sets of reasons defending their placement. The team ended up 16th overall and was 12th high team for their reasons.